The Andalite's Weapon
by FacelessName
Summary: The Yeerks have gotten hold of a very dangerous weapon from the Andalites. It is a terrible amount of cruelty, insinuating far worse things on the Andalite home world. Even with all they know about Andalites, the Animorphs are having a hard time accepti
1. Battle

A/N~This is my first Animorphs fic, please R&R! I created the character Tabetha because there wasn't anyone in the animoprhs that fit the idea I had for it. I've marked it as PG-13 but if you think it should be R please let me know; I don't want anyone reading this who shouldn't be.   
  
Especially tell me what you think of Marco, I think I captured him as a character really well.  
  
Sorry about the whole problem with the thought-speech, it only does it when I upload it it looks fine here. Please read my story anyways!!!!:)  
  
  
  
We were in yet another of many battles. And we were losing. Badly.  
  
I felt a stab at my stomach. A hork-bajir had sliced my gorilla body open. I barely registered the pain.  
  
~Okay, everybody, pull back! Jake yelled. ~Get out!  
  
I stumbled toward the door, feeling like I was about to black out. Dimly I realized that my gorilla body was dying. Again.  
  
~Somebody get Marco! Cassie cried.  
  
Rachel snatched me with her grizzly paws and we ran out the door. I blacked out.  
  
"Marco! Marco! Demorph!"  
  
Slowly I felt the changes begin. My coarse gorilla hair shank into my arms and I stood, fully human, still shaky.  
  
"Well, that was truly a marvelous Animorphs Moment," I said lightly. "I love it when my guts are outside my body."  
  
There was a grim silence. No one looked at me. I scanned around.  
  
"Where's Tabetha?" I demanded.  
  
No one answered. Suddenly, I knew.  
  
"Oh, man," I said, sinking to the ground. "Oh, man, oh, man, oh man."  
  
"She's not dead," Rachel said gruffly.  
  
"Yeah? You think that's any great comfort, Xena? If she's not now she will be in about five seconds!"  
  
"She's the only person I can think of other than me who would still be alive at this point," Rachel snapped. "You think she's stupid? Weak?"  
  
"Of course not," I retorted. "But even you're not stupid enough to think she can take on Visser Three single-handedly!"  
  
~So, one of the Andalite Bandits has decided to stay and play with us, we heard a thought-speak voice sneer. ~Let's see how much pain it takes to force him to demorph.  
  
It took approximately three seconds for these words to sink in. When it did, I felt the changes of gorilla start in me. I didn't tell them to, they just did. Slowly I changed back into my normal self. Tobias took off, headed back towards the facility.  
  
"Tobias!" Jake called. "You can't go in there alone!"  
  
~I'm not gonna leave her in there! he yelled back. ~You don't know what kind of torture they do-I wouldn't leave my uncle in there, much less Tabetha!  
  
Rachel began morphing too. "Stop!" Jake said. "We can't just barge right in there, we'll get killed!"  
  
"The Chee," I said suddenly.  
  
"They're non-violent," Cassie said.  
  
"So? Non-violence doesn't mean they can't go in there, grab Tabetha, and bring her out."  
  
Jake thought for about four seconds. "Okay," he said finally. "Ax, Tobias and Marco, go get Erek. Cassie and Rachel, come inside with me as flies so we can see what's going on." Rachel reversed her morph, and Tobias turned around in mid-air. He was already headed towards Erek's.  
  
"I'm going in," I said instantly. Jake shook his head.  
  
"We need you to hurry and get to Erek's."  
  
"Tobias is already on the way. You don't need that many people to go to an android's house."  
  
Jake sighed. "Fine. But don't do anything stupid, alright?"  
  
The insult prickled my neck. "When have I ever done anything stupid when it was close to me? As I recall that was you, Jake."  
  
~Marco, that was uncalled for, Ax snapped, already morphing.  
  
Jake looked at the dirt. I didn't care. I just focused on the fly morph as Jake, Cassie, and Rachel did the same. Normally Cassie is the fastest morpher. This time I beat her, and was zooming towards the facility.  
  
We crawled through a crack in the door. It was easy to find the place, all we had to do was smell for blood.  
  
~You know, does it bother anyone else that we are now attracted to our own blood? I asked conversationally.  
  
Before anyone could answer, we heard a roar of pain. I swiveled around and my little fly heart stopped.  
  
There was Tabetha, in her white tiger morph, now red with blood. She was bound with some kind of alien ropes. She was weak. She was dying.  
  
I couldn't help her! I was a fly! I was nothing!  
  
~I'll kill that bastard, Rachel hissed.  
  
~That was your first touch of pure, undiluted pain, the Visser sneered. ~How many more times will it take? Three? Four? Five, perhaps.  
  
~A thousand times and I will never let one of your slimy compatriots enter my head, Tabetha snarled.  
  
Visser Three sneered with his Andalite eyes. ~Be ready for a thousand and one. He pushed the button on the contraption in front of him.  
  
Tabetha screamed again. My heart cried out for her. God, was Jake really just going to sit there and watch this? We had to do something!  
  
I started to fly downward, when I heard Jake's voice in my head. Don't do anything stupid, he had warned me.  
  
Unwillingly, I soared back up to where I had been. I saw Tabetha sag against her ropes, heard her gasping for breath.  
  
~An interesting thing about this device, Visser Three said. ~The pain and injuries you are sustaining do not go away when you morph. The pain stays with you. How much damage am I doing to your true body, as well as this astounding Earth specimen?  
  
~There's no way, Cassie whispered. ~That's not possible-is it?  
  
~The Yeerks wouldn't just design that for us, I said. ~And anyways, Ax said the Yeerks don't come up with anything on their own.  
  
Even in my sick state of worry, something clicked.  
  
~Oh, my God, I whispered.  
  
~What? Jake asked.  
  
~The Yeerks steal all the technology they get from other species, right? There's only one species with the morphing ability, so only one who would use it to punish their people.  
  
~Oh, God, Cassie said. ~That's sick. That's really, really, sick…  
  
~But why would the Andalites need torture of this magnitude? Rachel wondered.  
  
~Can't you guess? What would be the worst thing for an Andalite to do? I said. ~Go over to the Yeerks. And that means…  
  
~You guys, if you can hear me, there's traitors on the Andalite home world, Tabetha said. I jumped, as much as you can in midair.  
  
I felt a sudden rush of pride towards her. Even half-dead, she reached the same conclusion I had.  
  
~We're in here, Tabetha, Jake said. ~Tobias and Ax went to get Erek. He's gonna get you out.  
  
~Ah. Good, she said. Then she hesitated. ~Is Marco…  
  
~I'm here, I said quickly. She sighed in relief.  
  
~Thank God. I was so scared you were dead, when I saw the way you looked…  
  
`~That was twice, Andalite, the Visser said. ~My patience is waning, as I'm sure is your strength.  
  
~Let me ask you this, Visser-what good is a morph-capable body if all the morphs are injured beyond repair? Tabetha asked, dripping with disdain.  
  
He hesitated. Obviously this thought had not occurred to him.  
  
~We've got Erek! we heard Tobias cry faintly. ~If you guys can get into battle morphs! We're gonna need backup!  
  
~Tabetha, we'll be back and be much bigger! I promised, zooming out the window.  
  
~Take your time. I'm in no hurry. Then, another animal roar. Obviously the Visser had decided it was worth it.  
  
We returned to the spot where we had demorphed before. I had more energy than I had in a while. I demorphed, than quickly morphed to my gorilla.  
  
Hoping he wouldn't die this time.  
  
I glanced over and saw Jake with fur rippling down his back. Cassie turning wolf. Rachel, growing to her massive grizzly bear. Ax landed and demorphed.  
  
Ax was Ax. If you ever see an Andalite in battle, you'll know why.  
  
Erek came up to us. "You know I cannot do violence, right?"  
  
~Yes, Erek, we know, I said. ~Just grab Tabetha and get out. We'll cover you.  
  
"You people are crazy. You're relying on an android who can't fight."  
  
~Yeah, well, the whole world is relying on a bunch of idiot kids, I said impatiently. ~Let's just go!  
  
We rumbled forward, praying no Dracon Beam saw us. We were an incredible little menagerie. We might as well have had a sign that said, "Shoot me, I'm an Andalite."  
  
We don't want to let the Yeerks know who we are, after all.  
  
We barged into the facility, in one huge animal roar, drowning out Tabetha's fresh roar of pain. ~Andalites! Visser Three snapped. ~Kill them! Kill them!  
  
~Rachel, on your left!  
  
~Behind you!  
  
~Oh! I'm hurt bad!  
  
~Marco, duck!  
  
~Cassie, get out, you're hurt too bad!  
  
~Erek has me! Tabetha yelled from outside. ~Get the hell out of there!  
  
We bailed as fast as we could, Hork-Bajir stopping at the door to keep from being seen. However, several people saw the small zoo that ran out of the facility, after a teenager carrying a white Siberian tiger. I wondered what they would tell their families when they got home.  
  
We raced through the trees, far behind Erek and Tabetha. Finally we found them, Tabetha, her human self, lying on the ground, Erek sitting next to her.  
  
Her injuries looked even worse in human form. I demorphed as fast as I could and knelt down beside her.  
  
"Oh, my God," I breathed. "Tabetha…"  
  
She smiled at me. I could tell it hurt, but she did anyway. "Looks worse than it is," she said softly.  
  
"Liar."  
  
"I tried to repair her wounds," Erek said, "but could not. There is something strange about this. This is not like the Yeerks."  
  
"No," I said. "But it's like the Andalites."  
  
Ax's stalk eyes snapped up at me. ~What? How dare you accuse Andalites of such cruelty! We would never do such a thing to…  
  
"Ax, that device was Andalite-created," Jake said softly.  
  
No one moved. Ax sagged. ~Wha—what? They made that terrible, evil…  
  
"Yes," Cassie said. "To punish those who help the Yeerks. The pain and injuries travel with a person when they morph."  
  
Suddenly I saw Tabetha shudder. "Tabetha?" I said, my voice shaking. "Tabetha, are you there?"  
  
"Hurts…not…gonna…make it…"  
  
"Do something, damn you!" I roared, grabbing the android and shaking him. "Your creators made you so powerful, save her! Help her!"  
  
"I can't!" Erek yelled. His hologram was crying. "I can't help her! I tried! I would save her if I could!"  
  
"Hold on, Tabetha," Cassie said, kneeling next to her and clutching her hand. "Come on, Tabetha, you can make it."  
  
~We have to take her to a hospital! Tobias said.  
  
I shook my head. "Any hospital might have a Controller in it. They may recognize the wounds. She could be infested, then what?"  
  
"Marco…" she breathed. "Hold on to me…"  
  
I grabbed her other hand. "Hang on, Tabetha," I said. "You're gonna be fine. You'll be fine. Those wounds didn't kill a tiger, they're not gonna kill you. You can make it. Come on…"  
  
I carried on like that for a while. Cassie stayed on the other side, murmuring similar things. Rachel, Jake, and Erek stood by watching. Ax was diminished, and Tobias was glaring down from a nearby tree.  
  
~My own people, Ax muttered, ~my own people…  
  
Slowly, so slowly, Tabetha's breathing returned to normal. Blood came back into her far-too-pale face. "That's it, girl," I whispered. "Come on. You can do this."  
  
Finally, she seemed to be mostly back to normal. She sat up slowly.  
  
"Man," she whispered. "That hurt. So much. I had no idea a machine could cause that much pain."  
  
"Just watch a TV with *NSYNC on it," I said. "The pain Visser Three put you through will seem pale by comparison."  
  
She chuckled, then coughed. "Ow," she said. Suddenly a look came across her face. "Ax…the kid…did this hurt it?"  
  
~I do not know, Ax said. ~This technology is unknown to me. However, as low as Andalites may stoop, I don't think they would ever hurt an unborn child. That is the most sacred thing.  
  
"But aren't most Andalites who get tortured males?" Tabetha pressed.  
  
~Again, I do not know.  
  
Tabetha let out a hiss of pain as she leaned against a tree. "Erek? Is there any way you can check?"  
  
"Certainly," he said. He stared at her stomach.  
  
Maybe it's just me, but an android staring at the stomach of the girl I…well, am fond of just creeps me out. Tabetha gripped my hand.  
  
"The baby is fine," Erek said. Tabetha exhaled.  
  
We all sat silent for a moment. Finally, Cassie said, "Six more months."  
  
No one spoke. "Yeah. Six short months," Tabetha said. Then her eyes darkened. I felt a rush of anger and hatred. I could tell by the way Rachel's nails dug into her hands she felt the same way.  
  
"We should go home," Jake finally said. "Marco, will your dad be cool if Tabetha stays with you for awhile? In the condition she's in, she can't stay outside."  
  
I shrugged. "Sure," I said.  
  
"We can keep Tabetha with us," Erek volunteered. He seemed desperate to help after not being able to heal Tabetha. "Maybe we can find something to help her."  
  
"Fine by me," I said. "I won't have to explain to Dad why I started bringing chicks over to spend the night."  
  
"He'd know immediately why," Rachel said. "Pity."  
  
"And Xena puts another spear in me!"  
  
The others morphed and headed home. I went with Tabetha to Erek's house.  
  
"You know, Erek," I said to him, "I've always wondered, do Chee come in designer colors? Or are you all that ivory color?"  
  
"I've always wanted a glow-in-the-dark Chee," Tabetha chirped.  
  
"Seeing as we can have hologram emitters, it seems ridiculous to make us different colors," Erek said. "But I must confessed, I always have wanted to be a glow-in-the-dark Chee."  
  
We laughed. It seemed very normal. I liked it.  
  
Strange, that normal has turned into talking about glow-in-the-dark androids.  
  
I seriously need a padded room.  
  
We reached Erek's house. As soon as we came in, Mr. King rushed up to us.  
  
"Tabetha, we have a place made for you," he said. "There's a Chee there who is specifically designed to heal, even more so than other Chee. She'll try to fix you."  
  
"Wha-oh yeah, Chee-net," Tabetha said, smiling. Mr. King escorted her upstairs. Erek and I were left alone.  
  
"Erek, listen, I'm sorry…" I began, but he waved his hand.  
  
"Don't worry about it. I understand."  
  
I felt a rush of gratitude that I couldn't ever define. So I just said, "Look after her, will you?" and left. 


	2. Flashbacks

A/N~Thanks to Aelle and the other person who reviewed! I hope you like this, and get to know Tabetha a little better. The next chapter is where you'll see the thorns on the rose. As always, please R&R!  
  
Walking home, I again found myself thinking of the night Tabetha was thrown out of her house. It was the day she found out she was pregnant. I walked her home.  
  
"Hey Marco," she said, shuffling her feet. "My mom's really racist."  
  
I was surprised. "Really? I guess I better not come in and ask for dinner," I said, as lightly as I could.  
  
"It's not that," she said. She lowered her voice. "The man that raped me was black."  
  
"What do you think your mom will do? Kill the baby?"  
  
"She would, but I won't let her." Tabetha's eyes flashed. "I won't have an abortion."  
  
She looked at me, eyes, pleading. "Will you come in with me? Please?"  
  
I eyed her warily. "I thought you said your mom was racist."  
  
"She is…but you look white in some lights, you know?" I couldn't say no to her vivid green eyes, so I sighed and agreed.  
  
Slowly we walked up her steps. I was a little nervous, but hey. This isn't exactly how you'd picture the big, "Meet the Parents," moment.  
  
"Mom?" Tabetha called, stepping in the door. "Mom, I need to talk to you."  
  
"What?" the plump woman in an easy chair called. "Come in here if you want to talk to me."  
  
So tentatively I followed her into the living room. "This is Mark," Tabetha said, introducing me. I gave her the fisheye. She pretended not to notice.  
  
Her mom grunted an ascent that she had heard me, eyes still glued to the TV screen. "Is that all?"  
  
"No, Mom, I'm pregnant."  
  
Her mother laughed. "Yeah, right."  
  
"No, really. I was raped about a month ago, and found out I was pregnant today."  
  
The woman actually muted the TV, then stared at her daughter. "Tabetha, was it a-"  
  
I don't need to tell you what she said. Tabetha's eyes narrowed. "It was a black person, if that's what you mean," she hissed.  
  
The reaction was instantaneous. The woman leaped from her chair. "Well, you better march your scrawny little ass somewhere downtown and find a clinic!"  
  
"I will not," Tabetha said evenly.  
  
"You will if I say you will!" her mother roared. "I will not have one of those…those beasts in my house!"  
  
"It's murder," Tabetha hissed.  
  
"It's not murder if it's not human."  
  
Tabetha's eyes narrowed even thinner. "It is a human. And you won't have to have it in your house."  
  
We walked out the door. As we left, I turned around and said, "Oh yeah, my real name's Marco. I'm Hispanic. And I think you are the sorriest excuse for a human being I have ever seen."  
  
She shrieked insults at us all the way down the yard. We just kept walking. Tabetha came to my house.  
  
I gave my Dad a sketchy explanation. He took it at face value, and Tabetha stayed with us for a couple nights. After that she went out to the woods and lived with Ax in his scoop. No one at school missed her. People noticed she was gone, like teachers, and I just told them she had gone to live with her Dad. The only reason they noticed she was gone was because everything they ever said in class wasn't challenged by someone smarter than them anymore.  
  
See, Tabetha and I might be equally intelligent, but she actually uses her brain, whereas I simply allow mine to rot.  
  
After a while, people forgot she had ever been there. No one really cared what happened to her.  
  
Just like Tobias.  
  
I stopped in front of my house, debated going in, then changed my mind and walked some more. My mind flew to when Tabetha first told us what had happened.  
  
We were standing around in the woods. Tabetha needed it. She said she couldn't be in the barn, it was too closed in. None of us knew what had happened yet, except maybe Cassie.  
  
"I was walking home, when some guy comes up behind me," she said. Her hands were shaking. I wanted to hold them, but I didn't know how she would react. "He says, 'You're an 'Andalite bandit,' aren't you? I'll make you morph.' And then he…he starts attacking me."  
  
My blood froze. "You mean hitting you?" Jake asked.  
  
"No. I mean…well, he raped me."  
  
Dead silence followed those words. I felt a cold fury rising in my heart.  
  
"Did you morph?" Jake asked.  
  
Tabetha looked up at him, eyes angry. "I'm not an idiot. I could have stopped him, but I didn't. I didn't morph."  
  
Rachel's eyes flashed. "You should have."  
  
Tabetha shook her head. "He would have ran while I was in mid-morph, then what? We'd be over. Through. I had to take it."  
  
"What happened to the guy?" Jake asked.  
  
"He said something like, 'You weren't too bad, and it was worth it, even if you aren't an Andalite. Guess we didn't need to suspect you after all.' Then he left."  
  
"Do you think he was told to do that by someone?" Jake pressed.  
  
Tabetha shook her head. Cassie was glaring at Jake with intense ferocity. He didn't notice.  
  
"That scumbag, probably just wanted an excuse. Although he might have suspected me."  
  
"You've gotta go get tested," Rachel said. "Ax, can diseases be cured by morphing?"  
  
~No, he said. ~That stays with the DNA.  
  
"Right," Rachel said. "So we're going to get you tested tomorrow. And if we happen to see that creep…" her eyes narrowed and she punched her palm.  
  
I stayed silent. "Tabetha…" I whispered. "I'm just worried about you. Are you OK?"  
  
She smiled her sad smile at me, the one that made me want to cry and laugh at the same time. "No," she said honestly. "But hey, none of us are OK, are we?"  
  
I shook my head. She took my hand.  
  
"Someday," she promised, "we'll be OK. But not now. Now we're teenagers, and supposed to be screwed up."  
  
I laughed in spite of myself. Then I noticed something-Cassie and Jake were gone. So, in spite of my better judgment, I decided to go and see where they went.  
  
I didn't have to go far. I found them in a little clearing. Cassie looked angrier than I had ever seen her.  
  
"I'm not stupid or blind, Jake," she hissed. "I saw the way you looked when Tabetha told us what happened. You thought, well, thank goodness she didn't morph. You thought, at least it wasn't Rachel, she would have morphed. You didn't care that she was in pain!"  
  
"Pain is for later, alright?" Jake snapped. "Pain is for when you don't have to worry about survival or trying to keep your friends from becoming slaves, tools of the enemy!"  
  
"Pain is real, Jake! And you can't exactly control when you feel like it or not!"  
  
Jake suddenly shrank. "I'm sorry, Cassie. I just…I don't know. I'm so scared that something's gonna happen and someone will get hurt."  
  
"Someone did get hurt," Cassie retorted, her anger slipping away. "Remember that. She needs us all now."  
  
With that she turned away. Jake was alone in the clearing. I watched him for a few seconds. Finally he left, too.  
  
I walked into the 7-11. Grabbed a slushee. Paid. Went home.  
  
I really wanted to go see Tabetha. But my dad would go ballistic if I was late getting home again. I went up to my room, claiming I was tired. I was. But I wasn't going to bed.  
  
As soon as I got up to my room, I stripped down to my morphing outfit and focused on the image of the great horned owl, lord of the night skies. I could see EVERYTHING! I mean, better than a hawk sees, yeah, but in absolute darkness I could see the antennae twitch on a cockroach.  
  
Not that I would want to.  
  
I flew to Erek's house leisurely, glad I didn't have to bide my time. I soared inside (Erek always left a window open,) and demorphed. Once I had, I headed towards Tabetha's room.  
  
"You need to sleep," a Chee was telling her.  
  
"I've got all day to sleep. Besides, Marco's about to come over."  
  
"You and that boy…"  
  
I knocked on the door. "Who is it?" the Chee asked dramatically.  
  
"If I tell you, I'm afraid you might fall over from the magnificence of my presence," I said.  
  
Tabetha laughed. "Or from the stench. Come on in, Marco."  
  
I walked in the door. "Hey, Tabetha. How are you feeling?"  
  
"Well, it beats being attacked by a mob of angry monkeys." She gestured to a chair, and I sat. "Amelia is a very good healer."  
  
"My masters created me to be sort of a "doctor" Chee," Amelia, who was obviously the Chee said. "However, they usually count on rest to help a person get better."  
  
"Well, if my good looks are keeping Tabetha awake…"  
  
"Oh, shut-up," Tabetha said, smiling. "I'm feeling a lot better. I'm not on the verge of death, anyways."  
  
"I'll leave you two alone," Amelia said, leaving the room and closing the door.  
  
"Are you really OK?" I asked her in concern.  
  
She nodded. "It's weird, lying in a bed, in a room. Mind, I'm not complaining. I like being warm."  
  
I smiled. "I forget the little things you've lost."  
  
"I'm not worried for me," she said. "I'm scared for this kid. I don't know what's gonna happen to it. I mean, a baby who..." she trailed off, looking distracted.  
  
I nodded. "Somehow, it'll all work out. There's not sense in speculating."  
  
She pursed her lips and nodded. We fell silent for a few seconds.  
  
"I was so scared, earlier today," she whispered. "I thought I'd lost you. You didn't see how you looked when Rachel pulled you away. I just saw glimpses of you through the Hork-Bajir. You were half-holding your insides in place…" she trailed off, and shuddered. I slipped my hand into hers.  
  
"Yeah, well, I was hoping we could bottle it and make a whole new line of snack foods." She wrinkled her nose.  
  
"Gorilla guts? Low-fat, available on the exotic foods aisle?"  
  
I laughed. "Yeah, I think there's a niche in the market for it."  
  
She looked at the clock next to her bed. "You really should go home," she said. "Get some rest."  
  
I shrugged. "Fine. I think we're meeting at Cassie's tomorrow after school. You gonna be there?"  
  
She nodded. "Yeah, I wouldn't miss a meeting. I'm feeling a lot better, anyways. By tomorrow, I'll be good as new."  
  
I morphed back to my owl. "Have a good flight," Tabetha said as I soared out her window. 


	3. Breakdown

A/N~Thanks for the reviews! To Qoheleth-I appreciate your reviews! You were right about the Chee, but I'm not going to change it now. I'll also try to make the chapters shorter. And the reason that I wrote Tabetha into the story is because I enjoy developing characters. She may not be exactly necesarry, but she's fun to write. Also, I use spell check on my work but I'll try to glean it a little more carefully for grammatical mistakes. To sda-I appreciate your honesty, but I wish you would explain why you didn't like it. And Aelle-I'm sorry if you don't like it, but I sometimes make my characters go through the same type of things I have gone through. It makes them more believeable.  
  
As always, please R&R!  
  
The next day I was the third person to arrive in Cassie's barn. Cassie was there, as well as Rachel.  
  
Rachel was leaned up against a pole, watching Cassie administer a shot on a very fidgety horse.  
  
"You know, Cassie," I said, "I could never give shots to people who know what's going on, much less an animal who thinks I'm trying to suck the life from their bodies."  
  
"Well, I wouldn't be too worried, Marco," Rachel said sweetly. "You'll never be asked to do that, because you can't reach them."  
  
"The bigger they are, the harder they fall," I shot back.  
  
Just then Jake arrived, followed closely by Ax and Tobias. "Was Tabetha planning on coming?" Jake asked me. "Or was she still feeling too weak?"  
  
I nodded, brushing aside the comment. It wasn't snide, was it? It was just me being my usual paranoid self.  
  
Just then a peregrine falcon soared into the barn. ~Did I miss anything? it asked.  
  
"Just the usual sniping between Marco and Rachel," Cassie said.  
  
"She started it," I said with a wink.  
  
Tabetha demorphed. "So what is this meeting for?" she asked.  
  
"This new torture device Visser Three has could be devastating," Jake said. "A wound that you can't demorph and get rid of? Too risky. We have to do something about it."  
  
"The Chee can heal whatever happens," Rachel said with a shrug. "Tabetha looks fine."  
  
"I'm still not 100 percent," she argued. "And the Chee aren't always right where we are. I felt very stiff flying over here. We can't afford that on a regular basis."  
  
~It doesn't even seem like there's anything we can do about this, Tobias said. ~Does it?  
  
Jake shook his head to clear it. "I don't know," he said. "There has to be some way to destroy it."  
  
"We don't know anything about it," I said. "Ax has never even heard of this weapon."  
  
"Let's think of the implications of this," Cassie said imploringly. "The Yeerk penetration on the Andalite home world is even greater than we thought. A few lone cases aren't enough to merit inventing a whole new device."  
  
~Not only that, but the crimes must be considered, Ax said. ~As disgusted as I am, I cannot believe that my people would do that unless the crimes were severe.  
  
"Well, we know that traitors are more than capable of murder," Tabetha said. "Look at the Ascalian incident. How many Andalites were murdered because of one traitor?"  
  
"Too many," I said. "Way too many. And getting back to the weapon, even if we do destroy it, then what? Some Traitors-R-Us will just give Visser Three a new one. Not only that, but the Visser will see that we really do fear this as much as he suspects we do."  
  
"The Visser has an Andalite body," Cassie said. "He knows an Andalite mind. He knows that it would take an insane amount of pain to force an Andalite warrior into demorphing. Better to die than be taken."  
  
"This thing give a lot of pain," Tabetha said. "More than you can imagine. I nearly gave in."  
  
Jake looked at her sharply. "What?"  
  
"She's human, Jake," Cassie snapped. "And she was in an intense amount of pain."  
  
Tabetha studied the ground.  
  
"So we find where this thing is located," Rachel said, gritting her teeth. "Go in there full-force, and take them out!"  
  
I sighed loudly. "Well, I'm glad we're not being to violent or anything."  
  
~Prince Jake, I do not think it would do any good for us to destroy the weapon. As Marco said, the Yeerks would only replace it.  
  
Jake sighed. "I don't like having this thing floating around. If Tabetha gets caught again and she nearly cracks…" His voice trailed off and he looked at the floor, suddenly aware of what he said.  
  
"If I nearly…what?!?!" Tabetha hissed. "If I nearly crack? Me?"  
  
"So the rest of us are stronger than her, is that it?" I said in a low voice. "I'd have been crying like a baby for Visser Three to let me go."  
  
"What indication have I given to you that I would 'crack,' Jake?" she asked, her voice barely over a whisper. "Would that be when I allowed myself to be raped? When Visser Three had all of us cornered and I helped keep David from turning over to him? Or maybe when I was recently tortured and told Visser Three nothing except the cruelest remarks I could muster?" She laughed hollowly. "Yeah, I can see where you would get that."  
  
She morphed to her peregrine falcon quickly and left.  
  
~Whatever she got hit with, it was worse than what they did to me, Tobias said coldly. ~I think she's incredibly brave. I notice you've never been tortured, Big Mighty Leader. He fluttered away.  
  
Ax left as well. It was Rachel, Jake, Cassie and I left in the barn. Jake looked helpless.  
  
"I…I'm sorry," he said. "I just…"  
  
"Don't blame her for us," Cassie snapped. "You did that."  
  
She turned and went inside. Jake turned angry and stormed out of the barn.  
  
Rachel and I stared at each other.  
  
"I don't believe this," Rachel said. "Jake? I mean, Jake? I never thought he'd say anything like that."  
  
I unclenched my hands, which had been balled into fists. "I dunno, Rachel," I said. "He's turned into this crazy General guy, and I think Cassie told him there was nothing for them anymore."  
  
"I'll talk to her," Rachel said. "We can't lose Jake to insanity."  
  
"No. And we can't lose Tabetha to Jake's amenity."  
  
I left, and Rachel went inside Cassie's house. 


	4. Waterfall

A/N~I am depressed. Truly. I come online and find how many reviews? ZERO! Not one, single, solitary review! Sigh. Please, please, PLEASE R&R!  
  
I reached Erek's house. "She's not here," Erek said.  
  
"What do you mean, she's not here?" I asked.  
  
"Just what I said. She said she was leaving to go to the meeting, and hasn't come back yet."  
  
I frowned, then morphed my osprey. I wasn't sure where she was going to be, but I had an idea.  
  
I headed over towards Tobias' meadow, then kept going. Tabetha had been spending more and more time here. I didn't think it was good for her, but she didn't listen.  
  
It was a little waterfall, kind of small, but pretty. There was a cave in the side of the rock next to it, where she liked to go and think. I swooped inside and demorphed, to find her sitting there, staring at the water.  
  
"Hi, Marco," she said listlessly. "Come to tell me how weak I am? Something I don't already know?"  
  
I rolled my eyes at her. "Yeah, that's it. That's exactly what I came to tell you. I better watch you, girl, you're becoming psychic."  
  
She sighed. "Jake's right, Marco. I came to close to breaking. I'm a danger. I'm not as brave as Rachel."  
  
"Tabetha," I said in exasperation, "you're one of the bravest people I know. Trust me, you don't want to be braver than Rachel. That's borderline crazy."  
  
She looked at the waterfall again and did not answer. I touched her back, and she flinched. "Tabetha, it'll be OK…"  
  
"Don't do that mushy shit on me, OK?" she snapped. "I don't need it from you."  
  
Not for the first time I got angry. "I care about you, and I'm sick of you treating me like a piece of crap every time I try to show it!" Angrily I kicked at a rock, forgetting I wasn't wearing shoes. Great. Now my toe was broken and I was mad.  
  
"Do you think I want anyone to care about me? The only thing you care about is making stupid jokes!"  
  
"Don't take out how pissed you are at Jake on me! That's not my freaking fault!"  
  
Immediately she swirled around to face me. The furious anger on her face deflated. "I'm sorry. I just…I don't see why he's that way to me. What did I do to him?"  
  
I shook my head. "I don't know. Don't do that to me again."  
  
"Yeah, because you're so thin-skinned," she shot.  
  
I was tired of arguing with her. I morphed to osprey. "Marco, wait," she said. "Please don't leave. I'm sorry."  
  
I stared at her intensely for a few seconds. ~You know, Tabetha, you should stop coming up here. It only makes you angrier.  
  
"I know, alright? I know it's bad. But…I just can't deal with everything, you know? And I morph to dog and get happy, morph falcon and fly…and come up here and get away, you know? I can't take everything."  
  
~Tobias served as a warning, I said. ~The Ellimist won't come to you.  
  
With that I flew away.  
  
I had been at home for about an hour when the phone rang. I picked it up to hear, to my surprise, Rachel.  
  
"So the blonde bombshell has finally decided she needs Mighty Marco?" I joked. It was a strained joke. I wasn't in the mood for jokes.  
  
"Bite your tongue, Marco, or I'll cut it out," she snarled. "I talked to Cassie."  
  
"And???"  
  
"Jake blames Tabetha for Cassie telling him things were done between them. So now he's taking it out on her."  
  
"That's more or less what we figured." I sighed. "I went up to see Tabetha this afternoon."  
  
"Can't say I'm surprised. What did she say?"  
  
"She basically turned as cold as possible until I pointed out that she was taking her anger at Jake out on me. She only warmed up a little. I don't know what we're going to do."  
  
"Can't you think of anything?"  
  
"No," I said. "I'm not good with people, emotions, right and wrong, stuff like that. We need Cassie."  
  
"Cassie's too mad at Jake to do anything," Rachel said with a sigh. "I think we need to wait for them to cool down."  
  
"Yeah. Well…I'll talk to you later."  
  
"Yeah, OK. And Marco?"  
  
"Yes???"  
  
"Don't ever mention to anyone that I know your number." With that she hung up.  
  
I stared at the receiver for a moment. Surely we hadn't reached an unsolvable problem…had we?  
  
A/N~Hope you liked it! Please review! 


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